When evaluating external or internal candidates to assemble or complete your team, it isn’t enough to just focus on the potential employees’ practical or technical skills. Professional soft skills are key to success when putting together a dynamic and successful team that has every chance of hitting your targets and supporting your company’s growth.
Below, we discuss the importance of the behavioural competencies that make up soft skills, seven qualities to look for, and the ways in which you can define and assess them.
Professional, interpersonal skills, an asset to navigate workplace challenges
Companies are placing more value on soft and general skills.
General skills such as a good attitude, a desire to learn, and team spirit are therefore becoming key assets in training and integrating a workforce lacking in technical skills.
The range of general skills is vast and encompasses qualities like leadership, time management, professional ethics, attitude, learning capabilities, and critical thinking.
The World Economic Forum has defined seven soft skill components that distinguish successful individuals in their careers. Here is an overview of them.
1. Emotional intelligence
Psychologists Mayer and Salovey define emotional intelligence as “the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions” (Mayer & Salovey, 1997).
A European study conducted by Chanlat in 2003 followed the progress of university science students over 40 years and assessed their soft skills and their effect on their professional success. According to this expert, emotional intelligence is a better indicator of future performance than IQ.
Those who have emotional intelligence within a professional context make valued partners for the following reasons:
- They have a positive attitude
- They are in control of themselves and their emotions
- They show empathy for others
- They listen to their colleagues
- They know how to communicate effectively to form relationships
2. Communication
Regardless of how good your team members’ hard skills are, their good ideas and innovative solutions may be disregarded or ignored if they do not know how to communicate in a convincing and effective way. Communication skills are essential for uniting a team and collaborating with management, teammates, clients, and suppliers.
3. Decision-making
In a rapidly evolving professional world where workers are constantly bombarded with requests and information, making informed decisions quickly is an asset. This becomes increasingly true as your employees move up the ladder.
The inability to make a choice, unnecessary over-analysis, and delays lead to uncertainty and confusion. Indecisiveness can see an organization miss out on game-changing opportunities. Employees who know how to make a choice to achieve an objective, without giving free rein to impulsiveness, are allies of your success.
4. Integrity and authenticity
Integrity is founded on a set of moral standards, intended to foster honesty and probity in the relationships professionals have with their clients, the public, and their peers. These codes of conduct include ethics, transparency, and responsibility. Beyond background checks that ensure that your employees do not have a criminal record, professional integrity brings about respect and trust. You can recognize someone with integrity from the following actions:
- They can take responsibility for their actions
- They don't hesitate to admit when they are wrong
- They’re capable of admitting when they don’t know the answer
- They do their best to respect their commitments
- They act and speak in accordance with their principles
- They are impartial, courteous, and approachable, and they avoid casting judgment on others
- They don't partake in fraudulent activity, corruption, or conflicts of interest
5. Motivation
Motivation is a highly sought-after quality. A motivated workforce is committed to a company’s success and is invested in its success factors. These staff members show a real commitment to hitting targets and are ready to go above and beyond to do so. They go the extra mile to improve their knowledge and skills. They use their time at work in a productive and constructive way.
6. Concentration on targets
We now know that “multitasking” is an illusion. Concentration and minimal interruptions are vital to succeed in a task or big project. The ability to focus all your efforts on the priorities and targets at hand without getting distracted is a key skill.
Studies like those from Carnegie Mellon University show that a shift in context—that is, turning your attention away from a task and juggling several projects—considerably reduces productivity. In fact, people can lose 20 minutes every time they have to refocus their attention on an interrupted task.
As such, a long-term, constant focus on the objective, and good time management help avoid taking the easy way or going off on a tangent. These habits can make a huge difference to the success of your initiatives.
7. Balance
Maintaining a healthy work-life balance improves your staff’s professional well-being, a key factor for retention and loyalty. Those who achieve this balance live a less stressful life, are happier, and are more focused—all promoting better performance.
While the right “hard” skills can be difficult to find to fill positions, companies are now focusing on soft skills objectives to assess promising candidates that they can train. This will allow them to assemble a pool of candidates to develop the skills and competencies that are critical to your organization.
